Irinah trumps all athletes. Can you feel the heat?

 I remember the silence. I could hear each and everyone’s heart beating as we walked together to the field. “What if we don’t win?” mumbled one of our Irinians. I looked around, our faces painted with the colour of our soul, the colour of unity, the colour of victory, the colour of Irinah.

               On the 17^th of March 2014, Kolej Tuanku Jaafar held its annual Athletics Inter-house Event. This is not just a friendly match; it’s a test of determination and teamwork. Events started off and soon, Irinah girls dispersed to their assigned events. In every event, you could tell that it was going to be a tough one or a definite walk in a park. Irinah girls were focused and nervous at the same time. Some were chatty and others just kept really still, fixated on the gold medal.

                Let’s rewind back, Irinah had a rough start to athletics for instance, late try-outs and due to the severe haze, practices were constantly cancelled. Each day passed and gradually the girls were starting to get worried- no practice, no confidence, right?

                It was mostly a neck to neck competition, so close that everyone held to the end of their seats. Quickly, one by one the events passed. Despite the lack of confidence, Irinah girls put up a tough fight. You can almost feel that power as Irinah girls ran for their relays, the cringe on their faces, the crowd roared louder and louder as every runner catches up towards the finish line.

                Well, here’s a summary of what happened. Gold medal here, gold medal there, a few silver and a few bronze medals, lo and behold, Champions for Athletics 2014 for both seniors and juniors were IRINAH! Ah, now, the cherry on top. We’ve got our own record breakers, Jennifer to break the school record in long jump and 100m race. Not enough? Our 4x4oom relay team, (Vincy, Kahlen, Raihanah and Celina) are now the new record holders. Irinah’s own pride and joy.

               The emotions were overwhelming! Lastly, lower sixes were given the responsibility of managing our athletes from day one an I’ve got one thing to say, not only is it just about choosing the best athletes, it’s about bringing the house together when we’ve been divided.

                You say Irinah. We say “Irinah dynamite, don’t mess with Dynamite!”

 

 

 

Written by Ili Nadia Azizi

 

Nadzarinah Entertains

For the first time in KTJ, the recently concluded Saturday night event on 8^th February marked the successful collaboration between Nadzaruddin House and Irinah House in putting together a variety of stage performances. Under the combined name of “Nadzarinah”, two months of practices and rehearsals finally paid off as the KTJ community praised and complimented the students for their entertaining performances. There was certainly no lack of laughter and excitement as the 'Nadzarinians' delivered a myriad of interesting performances which included the Phantom Dancers, an acapella performance, a staging of sophisticated dance choreographies by the Forms Four, Five and Lower Six students, and an Elvis Presley-themed romantic comedy musical by the Upper Six students.


Without a doubt, the Nadzarinians achieved their goal of entertaining the audience who clapped along and let out encouraging cheers in response to the performances. More importantly, the success of the event was indeed a demonstration of the strong bond and co-operation within the KTJ community.

 

 

 

 

By Sabrina Hallman

Blood. Sweat. Tears. Champions.

Big bold words spelled ‘NETBALL PRACTICE TODAY’ was one of the first thing Irinah’s netball players saw every morning in the preceding weeks of the Inter-house Netball Competition. The commonly used saying 'Practice Makes Perfect' has  two sides of that saying that most people don’t normally elaborate on. Through the journey of playing netball together, the Irinah players have come to experience both sides of that particular saying first-hand.

Determined to perform their best in this year's Inter-house Netball, the Irinah netballers devoted much of their time and effort to gruelling training sessions and drills on a daily basis. It was undeniable that the secret to imminent success was indeed  'practice makes perfect'  though  practices can be strenuous.  In simple words, our girls fully embodied the meaning  'no pain, no gain'.


Now comes the other side of the story:      

The day of the match finally came. Despite their hard work, Irinah players were particularly nervous in anticipation of the tough matches ahead. At the sound of the whistle, the matches started. Some matches were physically draining but as always, our girls met their challenges head-on, fuelled with the drive to play Netball to the best of their capabilities. Even as we were trailing behind opposing teams, the Irinah netballers never lost their focus and gradually closed the gap in tough, nail-biting matches.


The final results saw the Irinah Senior team emerging as Champions whilst the Junior team placed a respectable third for inter-house netball.   That’s the other part, they don’t tell you, the great feeling of sharing the win with your team.

- Ili Nadia Azizi

Irinah House Night 2014

How the time flies. It’s the beginning of a new year, and that means it’s also the start of a new term. This term, we had our annual house night at eCurve where we played a challenging game called The Escape Room. For those of you who have never heard of the game before, it’s actually a good way of making a person think more and get closer to your friends. Since we had school on that particular Saturday, we only got to leave the house around 2pm and reached there by 3.30pm.

Before playing the game, we were already assigned into our own groups of 6 or 7 people. Therefore, there were 12 groups in total. Since The Escape Room can only accommodate 6 groups at a time, some of us had to wait while doing some quizzes. My group was given the “Prison Break” room. We were actually handcuffed together and blindfolded while making our way into the room itself. In the room, we had to unlock the handcuffs, find the key to the prison cell AND the key to unlock the door. Trust me, it was so complicated to get a single key because of all the locked boxes that was meant to stall for time. Did I mention, that we only get 45 minutes to escape the room?

By 7pm, everyone had already completed the game but not all the groups manage to find their way out. Once out of the ‘room’ we get to take pictures with either the winner’s crown or the loser’s sign.

After that, the girls were free to do their own shopping as well as have dinner at the Curve. Finally, something other than KTJ food >.< It was a day well spent together with all the Irinians as we bonded and shared as a family.

      Sadly, we had to leave the Curve at 9.30pm. I’m sure that all the girls would agree that the time spent together would forever be a sweet memory. Can’t wait for the next House Night!



- Crystal Tan

House Night-Cooking House

On the 20^th of April, a group of 74 beautiful girls from Irinah went to the Cooking House in Mont Kiara for house night this term. It was the first attempt for many girls to live through a first-hand experience in the art of cooking. The girls were divided into 2 groups – one group learnt how to bake cupcakes – oreo cupcakes and banana muffins - while the other had a good time making hamburgers  - chicken and beef - from scratch. The whole process took them around 3 hours. It was a very unique experience that is worth remembering because instead of spending those few hours solely on physical activities, they learnt a new skill which they can then perform in the Pantry of Irinah House. At the same time, they had a fabulous and enjoyable time cooking together! After some hard work, the girls then embarked to One Utama to do some shopping and have their dinner. By the time they got back, sleep became their utmost priority after a day well spent as a house. It was another memorable House Night!!

                                                                                                        Sabrina Lim

Netball 2013

Irinah girls were on fire during the netball competition that was held on the 20^th February 2013. The competition was postponed many times due to the harsh weather. Fortunately, the competition ended well.  Before the competition we had intense training every day and had only short breaks but all the hard work can never beat us! Sprained ankles and sprained thumbs were common during the practices but recovered instantly and we got back to the game straight away.

Under the blazing sun, we never complained and continue training with all our might. This enthusiasm will never exist without the team’s undying support. Sometimes, caused by the unexpected weather, we had to train in the multi-purpose hall. We had to use basketball nets to play netball because we had no choice. It felt different and this also may affect our netball techniques so the only exercise we can do were drills.

Despite the tiring drills, we will never forget all the hard work from our team coaches. We wouldn’t have won without their professional netball techniques which improved us all. They also gave goodie bags to the netballers to give us more hope to win. We would also like to express our greatest gratitude to our housemistress and house tutors that accompanied us all during practices.

During the day of the competition, everyone was having fun supporting their own houses. We, Irinians brought orange pom-poms and a dragon hat which represented us. All the non-netballers put all their efforts supporting the team and giving out waters for those who were playing.

 

The junior team won the tournament convincingly while the senior team won the 1^st runner up position. Congratulations for the Irinah netballers! All our hard training has been paid off. We hope we will win the championship for both, senior and junior teams in 2014! Once an Irinian, always an Irinian.

Munira

Cross Country 2013

The 6^th of March 2013 was the day that Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar came together as one with the same goal at heart: to finish the race. On that day, KTJ held its annual Cross Country event within the precincts of the school. This event was divided into 4 different categories and the top 15 runners from each category were given a medal according to their respective ages: junior girls, junior boys, senior girls and senior boys.

 

On that Wednesday afternoon, the surprisingly good weather allowed Cross Country to take place without further ado, albeit the scorching afternoon sun. Hence, tears of joy and satisfaction were showered upon students as their strong determination drove them to the finish line – as not only were they running for themselves, they were doing it for their houses thus just that very thought made them much stronger physically, mentally and spiritually.

Throughout the race, what really tugged at the heartstrings were the great enthusiasm and house spirits manifested by each house as they cheered for their friends, giving them hope and motivation to stagger on. Cross Country allowed students to have a taste of endurance and determination when it comes to pursuing something that may seem impossible but is actually not when one has a positive mindset in achieving their goal.

 

However, just like any other competition, there is always only one championship:

 

Junior girls: Irinah House

Junior boys: Naquiyuddin House

 

Senior girls: Jawahir House

Senior boys: Naquiyuddin House

 

As Thomas Edison had so put it, “Many of life’s failure are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”. So do not give up, for that may be when the tide will turn.